Immigration Minister questioned on mother and baby

Updated
November 15, 2013 08:53:00

A Brisbane hospital has rejected the Immigration Minister's reasoning for restricting a mother from visiting her baby in intensive care. The case is likely to be raised in today's weekly Operation Sovereign Borders briefing, after a week of attacks from the Opposition over Scott Morrison's approach to releasing information about the military-led policy.

ASHLEY HALL: A Brisbane hospital has rejected the Immigration's Minister's reasoning for restricting an asylum seeker mother from visiting her baby in intensive care.

The case is likely to be raised in today's weekly briefing by the Minister on Operation Sovereign Borders.

Scott Morrison has been under fire all week from the Opposition over his approach to releasing information about the military-led policy.

Lexi Metherell reports.

LEXI METHERELL: Latifa is an asylum seeker from the Rohingya community in Burma.

Last week she gave birth in Brisbane's Mater Hospital. Her son was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit while she was returned to the Brisbane detention centre. And for several days before he was discharged, yesterday, the Immigration Department only allowed her to visit him between 10 and 4 o'clock.

Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce executive officer Misha Coleman says she should have been shown more compassion.

MISHA COLEMAN: Of course all of us who've had babies know that if they are in intensive care or special care you can't necessarily sleep by the cot all night, but you can certainly be down the hallway or on the next floor so that when the baby needs to have milk, be fed, that the mother can be called and is very, very close at hand.

LEXI METHERELL: The Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's office explained yesterday by saying doctors at the Mater had advised it's common for mothers not to stay overnight with babies in special care units due to bed restrictions.

But in a statement to AM the hospital suggested she should have been allowed to visit whenever she wanted.

EXCERPT OF STATEMENT FROM MATER HOSPITAL: Once a mum is clinically well enough to go home, she is discharged from hospital, but is encouraged to be involved in her baby's care wherever possible to help establish and strengthen her bond with her baby. Mater places no restrictions on women and they can visit their baby anytime where possible.

LEXI METHERELL: The case is likely to be raised at Scott Morrison's weekly Operation Sovereign Borders media briefing today as the Opposition ramps up its attacks on his approach to releasing information.

Chris Bowen is a former immigration minister.

CHRIS BOWEN: Scott Morrison was one of the big heavy hitters in Opposition, has become an embarrassment in Government; he refuses to answer questions about one of these key issues.

We've asked in Parliament how many boats have been turned back; he couldn't answer. We've asked him how many boats have been bought; he couldn't answer.

LEXI METHERELL: The tight control over the information flow from the Immigration Minister's office has eased this week with a number of statements released.

Former secretary of the Defence Department, Paul Barratt, says the media strategy is unjustified and unsustainable.

PAUL BARRATT: The fact is in a modern society any attempt to keep information bottled up is doomed to failure. There are three basic alternative sources of information: Indonesian officials in the current circumstances will be only too happy to embarrass the Government; people smugglers themselves don't need ministerial press releases to find out whether their people got through to Darwin or Christmas Island or got picked up by the Navy; and when they're within range, people on the boats have mobile phones.

It's a nonsense in terms of the suggestion that somehow it makes life more difficult for people smugglers.